The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Synopsis

The eye of the enemy is moving.

Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron's forces. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam bring the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord's realm.

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Every tale embarks us on a new journey, every journey eventually comes to its inevitable end. As for The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring turned out to be a genre-defining classic. The Two Towers astonishingly raised the bar to an even higher level. And even though it did seem near-impossible for The Return of the King to triumph over such towering expectations but against all odds, this final journey of Middle-Earth delivers everything & achieves much more than what was expected from it to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary saga to an epic & magnificent conclusion.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the culmination of the wonderful journey we embarked on with The Fellowship…

And with those words, Peter Jackson (you genius you) leaves me both sobbing and amazed at the utter perfection that was on display for the combined 11 hours.

I thought The Fellowship of The Ring was my favorite.

I was wrong.

The Return of the King is literally the most overindulgent and grandiose piece of cinema ever committed to celluloid. And that's not a bad thing, but a great thing. Tolkien's story is so intricately structured and detailed that to conclude the story in a couple hours would be a travesty. The Return of the King brings emotional gravitas, AWE-INSPIRING battle sequences, and pitch-perfect pacing to the table. And yes, I watched the extended edition. No matter how…

Peter Jackson is the dog whisperer of filmmaking! Every aspect of the film, with its numerous subplots all of which were demanding little diva's all vying for his time, talents and attention were masterfully handled, Jackson soothed the savage beasties and pulled off the most astonishing feat by delivering the most exciting, engaging, cohesive, satisfying, most beloved grand finale of all time!

Viewing this Trilogy is equivalent to participating in an Ironman Triathlon! I am physically and emotionally spent! I'm bruised, battered, and limping by the time I reach the finish line! But oh what a Glorious, Rewarding, Victorious experience this was!

I found The Return of the King to be worse than The Two Towers and about as good as The Fellowship of the Ring. It was somewhat silly in parts and astoundingly beautiful in others. And it just didn't want to end, did it?

As a whole, the trilogy is an astounding piece of work. It tells an epic story in a magnificent way, bringing JRR Tolkien's work to life with just as much love and dedication as Tolkien did in his hefty volumes. It deserves respect for its scope and ambition. And it has already become a classic.

Stuff I wish they’d kept in the theatrical cut that ended up in the extended edition: Gandalf facing off against the Witch-King, Theoden recognizing Eowyn on the battlefield, and every last part of the Houses of Healing. Maybe include the end of Saruman at the beginning of the movie too, since everything feels rushed until the lighting of the beacons and that might both provide better closure on that story line and serve to slow things down a little. Still, this movie is a fantastic achievement in a fantastic series, and I’m so glad it got made, and that I got to grow up with it.

Return of the King may well be my favourite in the trilogy, only because it concludes an epic undertaking and a journey over 12 hours long with the same characters. It is the darkest film where the stakes are at their very highest, and everything from the brilliant Smeagol opening sequence to the very end sends the audience out on a high note. At 251 staggering minutes (four hours, eleven minutes) it leaves no stone unturned and provides a momentous end to a fine trilogy of films. It should be said that it only works so well because you have invested so much time and emotion into the characters already, I remember sitting in a movie theatre in December of…

Multiple endings aside, this is how you close out a trilogy. The action is beyond reproach, the sheer scale of it all is impressive and yet it never losses sight of the story and characters. This trilogy is pure lightning in a bottle.